We looked high. We looked low. Alas, no Anna.

Baltimore, O's lose, too, as Benson files for divorce

April 04, 2006|By STEPHEN KIEHL | STEPHEN KIEHL,SUN REPORTER

We went to the ballpark yesterday looking for Anna Benson, because, well, is there any other reason to go to the ballpark this year?

Benson, of course, is the wife of new Orioles pitcher Kris Benson, and she's possibly a bigger star than her husband. She was recently on the cover of FHM magazine (wearing an Orioles cap and not much else), and she hopes to star in a reality TV show called Anna on Top.

Her arrival in Baltimore promised to give the Orioles just the jolt they needed. But last week, as spring training was wrapping up and the team was heading north, Anna filed for divorce. Was it something we said?

Still in denial, we thought maybe she'd make an appearance at Camden Yards anyway. First, we checked for signs of the, um, "christening" of the parking lot that she had promised when the O's signed her husband in January. The players' lot was filled with Range Rovers, Mercedes and Lexuses (even a Ford, good heavens!), but none were a-rockin'.

Next up was the cotton candy stand. When asked about her diet, Benson once said she likes foods loaded with sugar, flour and carbohydrates. There were plenty of blue and pink sugar puffs at the cotton candy stand, but no Anna. So we checked the ice cream stand, the snowball stand and Boog's Bar-B-Q.

No, no, no.

We couldn't find Anna in the seats reserved for Orioles wives, or in the "Family Waiting Area" by the Orioles clubhouse, either. (Though, with its kid-friendly toys and decor, we're not sure someone who wore a skimpy Santa outfit to a New York Mets Christmas party would have been let in there, anyway.)

"She wouldn't fit in here," said Matt Slominski, 33, of Annapolis, before the game yesterday. "Baltimore's a blue-collar town, right?"

Right. Anna, formerly a stripper, is more a no-collar, plunging-neckline kind of girl.

"This city's not big enough for her," said Wayne Vickers, 29, of Alexandria, Va. "It would have been cool to have her, but I'm not surprised. I think she might have felt a little bored here."

Other fans said the Orioles -- and the city -- would do fine without Anna. "She's like the cherry on top of the whipped cream," said Matt Newell, 30, of Baltimore. "It will still be exciting."

Yes, but it does leave the Orioles lacking a bona fide sex symbol. We wonder: Would Molly Shattuck like to be a ballgirl?